The dedifferentiation phenotype of the ATC cells is well known and is much more severe than the one of the differentiated cancers as attested by the downregulation of thyroid specific differentiation genes and by the total downregulation of the three fundamental thyroid determination factors (TTF1, TTF2 and Pax8): the cells seem to have lost all traces of their thyroid origin. Here, PAX8 is linked to cancer.